Lord O'Donnell was Cabinet Secretary and Head of the U.K. Civil
Service from 2005 to 2011, and served in that role under three
British prime ministers. His previous posts include Permanent
Secretary at the Treasury; the U.K.'s Executive Director to the
International Monetary Fund and
the World
Bank; and Press Secretary to the Prime Minister. He
was knighted in 2005.

The first time I met God he commented on my shoes. It was at a
party in early 2008, and Gus O’Donnell – or God as the media
likes to call him – was proving to be so all-seeing that he could
focus both on matters of state and on a pair of apple-green
platforms.

The second time I met the cabinet secretary and head of the civil
service was at a dinner in June 2010, barely a month into the new
coalition government. God was in his favourite outfit – jeans –
and was talking with great animation and what seemed to be great
indiscretion about his new bosses.